17 June - just five days away - was this afternoon confirmed by Mozilla as the big date for the overhauled browser which features a raft of improvements (no I'm not going over again). Ok, Ok: security enhancements, a revised download manager, full page zooming, a smart URL bar which learns from your browsing habits and vastly quicker operation with claims of over 100 per cent boosts in certain environments (notably Java) when compared to Firefox 2. Want more detail? Tough, I've typed and retyped them enough.

The launch day also coincides with Mozilla's hopes of breaking the World Record for the largest number of downloads in 24 hours. Amusingly, this is a bit of a misnomer since no official record currently exists, but Firefox 2 managed 1.6m in 24 hours and hopes are Firefox 3 will surpass 5m. Let's hope those third party app makers quickly get any compatibility issues out of the way...

In related news, Aza Raskin, Mozilla's Head of User Experience, has shown the first concept video for Firefox Mobile (grab above). Although stressed as preliminary, there are already a number of funky ideas such as throw controls (move left of the screen for basic navigation keys) meaning the whole display is used for content and a 2D desktop mode where tabs can be opened, closed and reordered. The smart URL bar from Firefox 3 also makes an appearance. Expect more on this soon.